Token Huntress

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:

The sun’s light dimmed many centuries before; now in the year of 2,341 rampant vampires now stalk their victims in a half-lit world. Humanity has been overtaken by a new society: one comprised of vampires, the supernatural beings that hunt them, and the remaining humans they fight over. The laws and rules that once bound our world have long since been lost. Now, the Hunter Guild struggle to stay one step ahead of the Vampire Council. Esmore, Token Huntress, has exceeded all expectations at only 18 years of age. She is fearless leader to her team, and she is relentless in her pursuit of the enemy. There is only one problem: Esmore is struggling to repress the growing darkness that seduces her from within. Esmore takes another step into the darkness when she encounters a teasing, tantalizing — utterly unignorable — vampire. The lines between right and wrong are blurred further as Esmore gives into her temptation, and her reality becomes deliciously tainted both with evil and with lust.

Review:

I received the whole series by the author and I was beyond exciting to read them. I don’t know about anyone else but you either have two kids of vampire books. The ones that are great which includes such reads as Interview with the Vampires by Anne Rice. Then you have the other category which generally makes you want to find the author and punch them when they release such titles as Twilight. For me vampire books are either in one of those two categories, there is no in between.

Token Huntress is thankfully in the first category.

This is based in the future where humans are in hiding and there are elite humans that are known as hunters. What separates this hunters from anything else you have already read before is that they have some sort of gift. These gifts are the awesome kinda gifts you would expect to find in Charles Xavier’s X-Men team. Esmore is one of those hunters. Actually she is a Token Huntress which is a pack leader of a small group of hunters. And naturally as the blurb suggests, Esmore comes across an enticing vampire that she cannot get out of her head. But we all know that hunters are meant to be killed not loved.

There were a few parts of the book along that way that I did question but they weren’t anything major like sparkling bloody vampires. ( Yes I hate Twilight and will never get over it) One of the parts that I found myself questioning was the fact that Esmore is a Token Huntress which was described as a powerful hunter so she gets a pack to look after and lead, but yet her special gift that they get on their 18^th birthday hasn’t revealed itself. To me that seemed odd. Purely because anyone else that has a gift would automatically perceived as stronger compared to one that isn’t.

The other thing that I picked up right away was the fact her mother was going to return. There was mention of her tragic orphan past and her mum dying while out on a mission in mysterious circumstances. It was no surprise when the mum returned. This by no means was left as an obvious statement by the author. This was something that I picked up because I believe my elite gift is picking up twists in the story. Can’t help myself. I really can’t. So for me there was no shock horror that her mother returned but this might lead into something in the next book? One thing is for sure I need to find out why she did return? Guess I better hurry up and jump into the next book!

Another thing that I wanted from the book was more bad ass humans. I understand the situation, vampire’s have taken over and knocked us down the line of the food chain but I kinda wanted to see more humans standing up and kicking butt in the background instead of waiting to be saved by the hunters. Again a small thing but I personally would have the need to save myself before waiting for another to come along and do so.

The rest of the journey for Esmore was enjoyable. I loved the setting in which this story takes place, it is futurist with a doomsday feel about it and I totally dug it. It is a very unique story for the vampire world. Usually its either in the past or in the present, not much is based in the future. So kudos to the author for originality! I dig it!

The characters were brilliant and completely well written to the point where I changed my mind about liking some characters and then growing to hate them. I love writers that actually let their characters evolve without seeming they got a personality transplant. I would give an example of this but I feel as though I should leave you to discover this since I kinda spoiled the mum surprise return for you. My bad! The focus isn’t always on Esmore and her character development as well. The side characters were delightful and all had unique, with vibrant personalities. Excuse the pun but it was great to see that none of the traits from one character bleed into another, which is another you can sometimes find with vampire books…. All the vampires have the same personality except the main character you are meant to love.

Kia is a self-published author and one of the things I find is that there are so many grammar errors and simple mistakes (says the lady who will be posting this review without even re-reading or spell check) but I barely found any which was relieving and didn’t distract me from the story line at all.

Overall I enjoyed the original traits of the books and I will be reading the remainder of the series with excitement to see how and where this all ends up. Thank you Kia for this enticing read!!

Rating: 4/5

ISBN: 9780994299901